That's Just Wrong: Hearing Aids

WSVN--It is almost a right of passage for teenagers growing up in the Keys. You must learn to fish and love to fish.

Carol: "Do a white one Darryl."

But even simple tasks like baiting a hook can be difficult for Darryl.

Carol: "Darryl is 18. He is mentally handicapped. He has muscular dystrophy. He has epilepsy and he's severely hearing impaired."

Darryl may have problems but he also has pride. His mother Carol has made sure he has every opportunity possible to succeed.

Carol: "He went to a deaf school in St. Augustine. He would commute every weekend and I would have to go to Miami and pick him up."

Now Darryl may go to a deaf school, but he actually can hear as long as he is wearing his hearing aids.

Carol: "He wears them 24 hours a day unless he's sleeping or he goes swimming."

When he is not wearing them, his mom sounds like this.

Carol: "He can't hear without them."

But when he puts them on...

Carol: "He can't hear without them."

And he soon may not be able to hear with them. You see Darryl needs a new pair. The ones he currently wears are all taped shut because they are broken. As a single mom, Carol uses Medicaid for his medical bills. But her doctor says Medicaid won't pay for new ones.

Carol: "They don't cover them. At all. They won't cover them."

In 18 years, Darryl has had only two sets. If he wants a third, Carol would have to pay for it herself.

Carol: "Medicaid will pay for them to be repaired but they've been repaired so many times, that he just need new ones."

Now, Carol says That's Just Wrong.

Carol: "I don't understand their policy that they would pay for major surgeries that he really didn't have to have, I just did it so that he would be able to use his arms, but yet they won't pay for hearing aids."

When Seven News contacted the Hearing and Speech Center of Florida, it told us...Carol was misinformed.

Carol: "He was told Medicaid only covered on hearing aid in a life time for a child. That's definitely not the case."

Darryl was given a hearing test ... And new hearing aids...smaller than his old ones and much better for his needs.

Carol: "Hopefully they'll help him for many years to come and they do have adjustment capability if he should need that."

And Darryl will need all the help he can get. He is now preparing for the next stage of his life getting job training in school.

Carol: "To go to a job he has to have hearing aids or he can't hear people talking so."